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Filed under: Design, web 2.0

Autodesk Dragonfly does easy, web-based home design


Looking for a quick and easy way to brainstorm some design ideas for your pad? Check out Autodesk's Project Dragonfly, a slick, web-based app that makes creating in two and three dimensions a breeze.

There's not much of a learning curve involved - click, drag, rotate, resize - it's all very intuitive. If you've played The Sims at all, you'll be right at home with Dragonfly. No, it's not a commercial-strength app like AutoCad, but it's at least as good as any of the boxed "3D home designer" programs I've played around with in the past.

Dragonfly makes arranging things easy by snapping to a grid and displaying guides to let you know when you're lined up with other objects in the room. To help align walls, doors, or windows, measurements are displayed when you add or modify an item.

There are loads of architectural and design elements to choose from, all categorized and fully searchable. Register for an account and you'll be able to save your designs and export them to JPG or DWG (you know, in case you want to ship it off to your architect or engineer).

While it's easy to use, Dragonfly is surprisingly powerful. It would be even better with some landscape design features, but who knows - perhaps that's something AutoDesk will add in the future.

Filed under: Fun, Kids, Windows, Macintosh, Freeware, Time-Wasters

Lego Digital Designer: virtual brick-building fun - TimeWaster

I've always enjoyed assembling models and contraptions out of Lego, and my four-year-old son is becoming quite a fan, too. Unfortunately, dad's stash doesn't always have all the fancy bricks required to meet his design requirements.

Thankfully, the good folks at Lego offer the Digital Designer, a 22mb free download that offers a rich, 3D program for crafting creations on your Windows PC.

We've been using it for quite a while, and the latest version sports a more polished interface, wider selection of pieces and backdrops, and reduced CPU and memory loads. It runs beautifully on my Frankenlaptop, a Core2 T5200 with integrated Intel video.

The interface is easy to understand, and several "starter kits" are included. They're a good way to see Digital Designer's impressive capabilities at work.

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Filed under: Business, Design, Adobe, Commercial

Adobe launches Acrobat 3D

Adobe Acrobat 3DToday Adobe released Acrobat 3D, a new version of their PDF authoring software aimed at the manufacturing sector. Acrobat 3D has all the features of Acrobat 7.0 Pro, plus it allows the user to import 3D models from major CAD packages into PDF files that can be viewed by anyone using the free Adobe Reader 7.0. If you have Reader 7.0 installed, you can check out a demo document at the page linked above. This is an excellent move on Adobe's part because it allows customers to view 3D designs without having to invest in expensive CAD software. Acrobat 3D costs $995 per copy.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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